


Good Food and Friends

by TigerLily



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-15
Updated: 2012-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-31 05:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/340282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/TigerLily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The teams gets together for Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Food and Friends

Gibbs could hear the Christmas carols blasting from the condo he shared with Ducky as he jogged up the front walk. He had to smile because the carols meant that Abby had arrived and was starting the advance preparations for Christmas dinner.

A Christmas dinner Ducky had planned to host until the sudden decline in his mother’s health had caused him to have her placed in a hospice.

Gibbs had just returned from dropping Ducky off, so he could visit with his mother since she had become more lucid now that she was entering the last few days of her life.

The former Marine had insisted on staying with his lover, but Ducky had sent him home with the promise to return when he called. Gibbs had reluctantly agreed, and now was stepping out of his car with a large cup of coffee in one hand and a bag that held the last of the ingredients for dinner in his other hand.

He entered the condo and went to the kitchen. He placed the bag of ingredients on the table knowing that Abby was too caught up in the music to notice that he was there.

He returned to the doorway to watch her bounce around the kitchen with her dark, pony tails whipping around her head. The jingle bell pony tail holders provided a counter-rhythm to the music coming from the CD player.

“Abby,” he called out in an attempt to get her attention.

She didn’t hear him as she continued to dance around the room to a hard rock version of Santa Claus Was Coming to Town as she sipped from a large Caf-pow that she had brought with her earlier.

He stepped into the kitchen and turned off the CD player causing Abby to stop and whirl around to face him. “Gibbs!” she exclaimed as she tossed her empty cup into the trash and bounced up to him. She gave him a big hug, which Jethro briefly returned.

“How many Caf-pows have you had today, Abbs?”

“Umm, uhh…” Abby hemmed and hawed. She ticked the number off on her fingers and looked up guessing, “Five?”

“That’s two too many and I don’t want you burning down Ducky’s kitchen,” Gibbs gently admonished.

“Gibbs,” Abby pouted. “I would do nothing like that.”

“Don’t Gibbs me, Abby.”

Abby crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Gibbs. Her foot tapped out a steady beat to advertise her annoyance. “The turkey was a huge pain in the butt. Where did you get it anyway? And you want to take away my Caf-pow!” she hurriedly grumbled.

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“You better.”

“I will.”

“How’s Ducky doing?” Abby asked changing the subject. She cared a great deal for Ducky, but she also hoped that forcing Gibbs to talk about something other than her caffeine consumption would keep him from throwing away her final, large cup of Caf-pow that was co-habitating in the fridge next to the fully thawed out turkey.

“I guess he’s doing alright,” Gibbs replied. He knew what Abby was doing and he would let her get away with it. She was his favorite after all. “He hasn’t said much, but then we haven’t recovered from our argument over putting his mother in assisted-living in the first place.”

“He has to know that that was the best decision,” Abby remarked. “Taking care of her was slowly killing him.”

“He knows that,” Gibbs said with a shrug. “He’s just a determined son hoping to do right by his mother.”

“And you?”

“What about me?”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.”

Abby gave Gibbs another hug and murmured, “Liar,” into his shirt.

“Love ya, Abbs,” Gibbs whispered in her ear.

Abby stepped away and replied, “Back at ya, so now where are my helpers?”

Gibbs gratefully accepted this change in subject. He hated being at odds with Ducky, but the last few months had been difficult ones for them with so many things being thrown at them that Gibbs wondered if they had the strength to make it past Mrs. Mallard’s pending demise. “They should be on their way, if they know what’s good for them.”

“It’s going to be fun to see Tony in a frilly apron,” Abby quipped in an effort to keep the mood in the room light.

“DiNozzo wearing an apron let alone a frilly one is going to be amusing.”

Abby smiled. She heard a knock and bolted to the front door to let the rest of the team in.

&/&/&

Hours later….

Gibbs had returned with a somber Ducky.

It had been Vanessa Mallard who had called him to come collect her son. She declared that Ducky needed to celebrate the holiday properly, and that meant in her mind good food and good company.

Ducky, of course, had protested, but in the end Vanessa had won him over. She had wanted nothing but happiness for her little boy.

She and Gibbs had exchanged a look behind Ducky’s back as the blond, doctor donned his outer clothes for the trip home. They knew without saying that this would be the last time they would see each other, and that she was turning over the care of her son to him.

Gibbs had escorted Ducky from the building and helped him into the car knowing that his lover was trying very hard to ignore the nagging pain in his bad leg.

He had turned to face Ducky and had said, “I’m sorry, Duck.”

Ducky had reached out and cupped his cheek. “You have nothing to apologize for, my dear,” he had replied. “Mother has set me straight on a great many things, and I know you had our best interests at heart.”

Gibbs had placed a brief kiss on Ducky’s hand happy to know that Ducky still wanted to be part of his life.

“Now, my dear, let’s go and rescue my new kitchen from the children.”

Gibbs had chuckled and had set the car in motion.

&/&/&

Dinner turned out well with no one destroying Ducky’s new kitchen.

Gibbs started a fire in the fireplace while the children finished divvying out leftovers and cleaning up the kitchen. He settled Ducky in his favorite chair with a glass of wine at hand before checking on the progress in the kitchen.

He leaned in the doorway with his lips turned up in a soft smile as he watched his team tease each other as they efficiently moved about the room.

“Who wants a Christmas story?” he asked during a lull in the teasing.

“We do," the team had clamored and quickly finished their work.

&/&/&

As the fire crackled in the fireplace and the team finished the wine they had brought, Ducky felt a feather light kiss on his cheek. He smiled knowing that his mother had passed on. And while this made him sad, he vowed to fulfill Vanessa Mallard’s final request.

He gathered the team around him and regaled them with stories from Christmases past.

Fin


End file.
